This invention relates in general to current amplifiers and, more specifically, to a high gain differential current amplifier having a low output voltage.
Current amplifiers are found in a myriad of applications in electronic circuit design for amplifying an input current to provide an output current having increased amplitude. Some desirable features of the current amplifier are high gain for providing the large output current and minimal output voltage for operation with external circuitry requiring a low input voltage overhead. The combination of a high gain, say 10 dB, and a low output voltage of less than one volt have proven to be difficult features to achieve simultaneously in the prior art.
A prior art current amplifier is discussed in the Detailed Description of the Prior Art section. One principal drawback with the prior art example is the excessive output voltage which may be unacceptably high for many external circuits requiring a low input voltage overhead.
Hence, what is needed is an improved current amplifier having a high gain and a low output voltage.